LA to The Bay

Chapter 15: San Diego (2)

The Double Deuce, San Diego

'Shit Niamh you need to try some of this stuff.' Lottie thrusts a plastic cup bearing some noxious pink fluid at me.

'But we're in a club and we're not twenty one?'

For some reason I feel scared to tell her that Duncan is already at the bar and in the process of getting me a glass of wine, for since he is 27 he hasn't been stamped like a pregnant sheep, emblazoned with the words "under 21", and instead can get away with just showing the bar lady a few dozen papers to prove his identity.

But for some unbeknownst reason I am scared to tell Lottie this, because I'm afraid that it might upset her. For Lottie needs to feel like it is she who is the one in the know, the risk taker and our leader. To take that away would be like stealing part of her identity. Just three days on another continent and I'm beginning to realise this now. It almost makes me feel sorry for her. Almost.

'So, Harry got it. Just live a little.' She is itching for me to drink it, because if I follow her orders it will cement her status; that she is the bearer of illicit goods and as ever I am just the receiver.

'Fine.' I snatch the cup from her and gulp it down. As much as I loath to accept anything from her, especially pink liquid, I could certainly benefit from an extra alcohol hit right now. Because being here, being subjected to such a mindlessly oppressive rule as no drinking under the age of twenty one, it almost makes me glad to live in England, a country where underage alcohol abuse is practically encouraged. Plus what's the worst that can happen; I get caught and we get kicked out? Like being here is doing so much for me.

I'm starting to get frustrated about getting my plan started, since I'm in such a good viewing spot of Louis. But Duncan is taking just way too long at the the bar. God being short and male really does hold you back when it comes to getting served.

'So I see Louis and Harry's shadows are with them again.' I try acting nonchalant, looking at my nails and twirling my hair, as if I am just making a statement of fact to Lottie, and I am not in fact prying for information.

'Ugh.' She rolls her eyes. 'Marty is so desperate. I didn't think Harry would go for someone as obvious as her.' I note that it's Harry she has commented on and not Louis. Not that I give a damn about Harry or who he does or doesn't choose to associate himself with; it's Louis that I'm bothered about, particularly how Juno is looking up at him through doe eyes as she sips on her straw coquettishly.

So this is the first official evening event of the trip. After barely half an hour to recover following the trauma of Tijuana (just how they expect me to re-glamourise following anything in half an hour, let alone a trauma, I haven't a clue), but it seems this is to be our standard turn around time, and we've now been shipped off again, this time to the Double Deuce bar in San Diego.

Yet in those measly thirty minutes of course Louis, Harry and the Models Incorporated have managed to team up and co-ordinate, at least that's what it looks like, for here they are now, looking like a pair of well seasoned couples on a double date. Damn it, but I have to admit that they all look good. Not just Louis, which is of course a given, but all of them. Even the Models Inc. Even Harry. Grr.

Of course the girls are dressed to the nines like glittering cocktail ladies; totally inappropriate for what is basically a rodeo with a bar attached. Marty is wearing a silver backless dress to show off her brown hair and complement perfectly with Harry's black t-shirt, and Juno is in a matching black dress to show off her blonde hair and link up with Louis' perfectly ironed white t-shirt. It's like they are auditioning for a members only catalogue.

'I've got your wine, Niamh.' Duncan returns from the bar right before I have the chance to hurl something at them.

'Thanks.' I take another hasty gulp.

'Easy Niamh. Those drinks are expensive.' The way Duncan just said "easy", it just reminds me that this is Louis' term. I want to tell him not to say it again, to at least protect one of my memories from before Louis became indifferent:

I look over again but he is gone. Where did he go so quickly? And wait Juno is missing too. My pulse is racing, frantic at the idea that they have gone somewhere together, alone. They weren't supposed to disappear, they were supposed to be here noticing me not noticing them, and wonder "wow, Niamh really threw it back together after such a difficult day", and "I wonder what Duncan could be saying that is so funny?" But instead all I get is Harry staring back at me, obviously annoyed that he has caught me ogling him and Marty. Like I would ever deliberately be looking at him.

'So Duncan, blah, blah, blah.' I really could be saying anything and he could be speaking in Martian back, but I can't help but notice that now that the music has loudened and the lighting has darkened that Marty is whispering in Harry's ear and he is smiling coyly back at her.

Like an anaconda she has her arms up around his neck and is pulling him in down to her. Harry looks over at me, all doe eyed like he wants me to save him or something, but it is too late; they are kissing.

'I can't believe they are kissing.' Lottie is horrified. 'I thought Harry was better than that.'

I'm not sure what I'm most grossed out about; the fact that I'm having the witness Harry being publicly intimate with someone or the fact that Marty is actually throwing herself at him. I mean, if she wasn't so desperate then it might actually look like he is quite a good kisser given that he seems to want to take things a lot slower, intimate almost. Stop this Niamh, who gives a damn about Harry's kissing technique, I need to refocus on finding Louis so that I can abolish the sinking feeling that he has succumbed to the same fate as Harry.

'So do you want to dance?' Duncan is grinning at me eagerly. Gulp...

Authors note: I'm not sure what the name of the song is that I uploaded but I do know I danced to it tipsy one too many times and that it definitely used to play in the Double Deuce 👌